Shoe



March 25, 1941. J. GRUBER 2,236,367

SHOE

Filed April 4, 1959 mill/111! %7'AM INVENTOR TORNEY Patented Mar. 25,1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

John Grnber, New York, N. Y.

Application April 4, 1939, Serial No. 265,887

This invention relates to shoes and has for its main object theprovision of a shoe construction in which the upper is removablyattached to the sole portion so that the same can be readily exchangedfor another upper, in order to enable the conversion of a house shoe, abeach shoe or a shoe worn in a factory into a shoe for street wear orthe like, or into a shoe of a particular color to match the color ofones dress.

19 Such novel construction affords the advantage that one with limitedmeans instead of purchasing several pairs of shoes for different use oroccasions needs only a single pair with different uppers which he or shecan readily exchange one for the other.

' Thus, for instance, a woman wearing a shoe which according to themodern fashion has its upper cut at diflerent parts, as at the toes andsides, when caught in rainor snow, if equipped with an extra pair ofuncut uppers, will be able to apply the latter to completely cover herfeet.

To accomplish my object I provide a shoe consisting of a permanentportion which includes the sole and heel, with or without a permanentupper, and an extra upper adapted to be removably fastened to saidpermanent portion. For the removable attachment of said upper the freelower edges thereof have suitably fastened thereto an open loop of steelwire or other resilient or elastic material which is adapted to-snapinto a groove or channel provided in and extending around thecircumferential edge of the outer sole of the shoe and to thereby retainsaid extra upper in position. This extra upper may be made to eithercover the entire foot and thus extend all around the sole or to coveronly part of the foot and thus extend only over the front part of thefoot.

My invention also consists in the novel construction, arrangement andcombination of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described anddefined in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing, which constitutes part of thisspecification and in which similar reference characters denotecorresponding parts,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe c0 structed according to myinvention, showing the 5 removablezupper unattached;

55 form of a removable upper;

Figure 2 is a cross section on line 2-2 of Fig-- Figure 5 is anelevation of a" fragment of a shoe showing a modified construction: and

. Figure 6 is a longitudinal section on line 6-6 of Figure 5.

The permanent portion of the shoe may con- 5 sist of an outer sole ID, aheel l I suitably attached thereto, andan inner sole l2. In the exampleshown this permanent portion also includes straps l3 as used on sandalsor beach shoes, and the upper heel portion l4. Instead of straps I3 10the permanent portion may have an ordinary upper stitched or otherwisesecured to the sole, as usual.

The novelty of my invention resides in the provision of an extraremovable upper l5 which 15 may be made of leather or other suitablematerial and of any desired style, color, etc. and so admeasured so asto fit over the permanent upper, if any, over the straps l3 and heelportion or directly over the foot. This removable upper i5 has its loweredge folded or fluted to form a tubular channel I6 in which is embeddeda loop I! of steel wire orother elastic or resilient material open atthe rear. The rear part of this upper is split or parted in the middlethroughout its 25 height, the edges IQ of the split being suitablyseamed and, when applied to the sole, adapted to overlap and be suitablyfastened to one another by press or snap buttons l8,- l9' or othersuitable means. The loop "embedded in the channel 3 it of the upper hasthe tendency to normally contract the lower part of said upper. Theouter sole ill of the shoe is provided with an annular groove or channel20 extending either all around the same or only up to the upper heelportion Hi. 35 The loop contracted lower edge of the removable upper I5is adapted when spread apart to engage said groove 20 and on contractionto effectively hold the upper 15 in position. After attaching said upperto the outer sole the free rear edges 18 thereof are folded over oneanother and fastened together by the press buttons, or the like.

The front part of the upper I5 may be' constructed in any desired manneraccording to the style. Instead of a full length upper, according toFigure 4, an upper l5 may be used which is adapted to extend only up toor slightly beyond the upper heel portion H. In such case while the loopcontracted lower edge of the upper will ena e the groove 20 of theoutersole, the free edges ll. of the upper may be fastened to the heelportion I 4 by snap buttons l9, l9 or other suitable means.

- Instead of providing an upper heel portion permanently attached to thesole as in Figure 1, each p of the rear parts of the removable upper maybe stiffened as at 2|, so that when the loop contracted lower edge ofsaid upper is snapped into engagement with the groove III or the outersole l and the free edges ll are attached to one another by the snapbuttons l8, It, the reinforced or stifiened parts 2| will themselvesconstitute the upper heel portion oi. the shoe.

By virtue of this novel construction a shoe may be made with severalremovable extra uppers as accessories, to be interchangeably slippedover the foot, either to cover the ordinary permanently attached upperor straps, or directly the foot, thus enabling the wearer to quicklyconvert a house shoe into a shoe for street wear or a shoe of one coloror style into another suitable for a.

particular occasion. Not only will the wearer save much time in makingthe change, but also expense, since the cost of extra uppers will beconsiderably less than that of extra complete shoes. The uppers, likespats or gaiters, can be conveniently folded and will, therefore, takeup less room than complete shoes. They can also be conveniently carriedin one's bag or pocket to be available at a sudden change of weather.

Since other modifications may be made in the construction of the shoewithout departing from the principle of my invention, I do not wish torestrict myself to the details described and shown.

What I claim is:

A shoe comprising a sole and heel, an annular groove extending allaround the circumferential edge of said sole, a removable upper split atits rear, reinforcing means embedded in the rear portions 01' saidupper, a channel formed at and all around the lower edge of said upper,a resilient open wire loop embedded in said channel and adapted tonormally contract said edge and when snapped into said annular groove totightly COD: nect said upper to said sole, the free ends of said splitrear portions of said upper, being adapted to overlap one another whensaid upper is connected to said sole and fastening means on said freeends for detachably connecting the same to one another.

JOHN GRUBER.

